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20 March 2020

Challenges calling us forth! Interview with Br. Louis Cinq-Mars, OFM Cap

Consecrated life is in transformation. Aging is an undeniable characteristic of its demographic. “Styles” of consecrated life that emerged in different times and from diverse spiritual impulses continue to evolve together, but emphasis is shifting. Apostolic congregations have been numerous and have championed missions abroad. Today, those mission destinations of the past are sending sisters and brothers to us in North America.

The challenges are great: inculturation, of course, but also the need to listen to the visions of the Church and of mission learned in other cultures; intercultural dialogue within religious communities hoping to build authentic relationships and mutual support; intergenerational dialogue to care for the faces of the Church in all its stages…

In the face of these challenges, it is necessary to return to the source of consecrated life: a desire for communion, a call to witness to an alternative way of life, a thirst for the humanization of the world. Louis Cinq-Mars, outgoing president of the CRC (2018-2020), was a social worker before joining the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin. He worked with the L’Arche communities in Ottawa and Montreal as a Capuchin. His role as Minister Provincial took him to India, Brazil and Madagascar. Based on these experiences, he brings his perspective on the future of consecrated life to this interview.

This interview is taken from the Winter 2020 issue of the ad vitam webzine “A Communion that Generates Mission”.